Epson EB-W10 – The Smart Sibling

Physique

Family Resemblance

Epson has long been a staple for printing and imaging products, whether for home or business use. Their projector product line in particular is remarkably wide, ranging from from interactive classroom models to massive full-HD home theater machines, which have bagged numerous industry awards over the years. Business imaging remains to be one of their top market segments, with models that cater to a variety of different needs. Right in the middle of the pack is the EB-W10.

When the demonstration unit arrived in our office, we were rather surprised as the EB-W10 looks exactly like the other Epson projector we reviews a few months back, the EB-S10. It shares the same curvy consumer-friendly design of the EB-S10, right down to the glossy white paint job. On top, it features the same sparse button layout as well, which we found to be very simple and easy to understand thanks to its large, clear labels. The only difference is that the left and right parts of the circular button are now volume controls, as opposed to the digital zoom controls on the EB-S10. This is because the EB-W10 features manual zoom, which is adjusted with an easy to use lever on the lens tube.

A closer look reveals that the resemblance is only skin deep. In front, on the right side of the EB-W10's projector lens is a label that reads WXGA. This means that this model has a native resolution of 1280 pixels wide by 800 high. This is not only higher than the EB-W10's 800 x 600 SVGA resolution but is in high definition territory. Not 1080p full HD mind you, but 720p to be precise. Because of this, the EB-W10 sports an HDMI port, along with all the usual video ports. As for audio, it has a tiny little built-in speaker, which we believe could have been replaced with a proper audio out port instead. This was particularly a problem when using HDMI, as it carries audio signals as well as video, so there was no choice but to use the built-in speaker. The EB-W10 also features Type A and Type B (printer cable) USB ports for USB display. The projector already has the PC driver to be able to run USB display, but in practice we found it to be rather unreliable. We recommend just sticking to the usual VGA or HDMI.